London final of Miss Gay UK: Battle wounds and glory.

I sauntered up to the Edge Bar, Soho, for round two of the ritual humiliation, oh sorry I mean Miss Gay UK. I got there early and had time to reflect on the ridiculousness of what I was doing. I mean, when you get into that spiral thought pattern, it’s a sinking ship! I was a condemned woman when I saw the rest of the finalists, all fresh faced and cool with a sprinkling of intrigue and a dash of confidence you have when you are young.
I am 40 the only sprinkling I have is of jaded realism and was not fresh faced. A sad reality of aging is the bleak actuality of wrinkles and a pallor my mother calls “of the grave”

However, never the less I strode on. It was nice to meet the women I met the week before again. Esther and Anna are lovely women and we all gathered nervously in the contestant row off stage (felt more like death row to me)
I thought I distinctly heard a whisper on the wind “dead man walking” and caught sight of Susan Sarandon dressed in a habit….I think I might have had an off sausage, as I was hallucinating at this point.

When contestants were pushed on their lesbian icons, Pink, Angelina and Portia were high on the list. I fear I must be ill, as mine would have been Nigella Lawson! Her cookery is akin to soft porn. Have you ever watched that women eating a lobster claw? It is practically erotic.

I got a strange comfort from seeing Paris, another contestant from the 2nd heat. We have a lot in common and I felt a pang of comrade kinship. It is like going into battle! Once more into the breach dear friends.

The lovely Leah was looking particularly stunning and well groomed, she does not adhere to my past life philosophies, but she could have been an Egyptian Siren, who called the mariners in from the Dead Sea.
In fact, during what should have been my speech and only time to impress the judges, she launched into a rather impromptu Oleta Adams rendition. It was rather beautiful I have to say, and I didn’t mind her spoiling the meagre chance I had to impress the panel of judges….Only kidding Leah…I will get you back in the next life though.

There was a good atmosphere in there, loads of women gyrating to Lil Jo’s frenetic beats. I am not a DJ connoisseur at all, but I could tell from watching Jo, that a certain type of creative process seems to happen when she is at the decks. Like a stream of consciousness pours into her tiny frame, and the art of her mix comes through. It was quite something to watch actually. I found myself beguiled by this poetry in motion.

Bex, I thought, was a trooper, she had to nestle a champagne bottle between her boobs, and limbo backwards to get a sip. To her credit, she did this, and she took her top off. The women went wild at this point. It was like being at a Siegfried and Roy Vegas show. The women could have pounced at any point. Lion tamers might have had to be brought in, to whip these savage women back.

The question round saw us all pitted together with similar questions. I’m not a competitive person at all, and found the process quite difficult, but the contestants were lovely, and we tried to help each other out.

When it got to my question, there was so much talking at the rear that I had to yell SHUT UP AT THE BACK, probably not the best move in hindsight, but howdy hum. I had to talk about if my Ex came back if I won Miss Gay UK…well like I said, the first thing I would ask for would be my Dyson back and my champagne flutes that she took as revenge for our collapsed relationship. The last spit on the tomb of the relationship was her also taking one toilet roll.

I would have liked to have seen some more older women in the competitions, after all, after 30 lesbians don’t crawl under a proverbial rock and die, living off a meagre diet of Claire Macnab novels and wistfully thinking back to the good old days!

So next year, all of you older lesbians, with wrinkles that show wisdom and love handles that show a life well lived and a plethora of lovers wounds, why not enter Miss Gay UK?

As is probably evident, I did not get through but I must say I really enjoyed the experience, and am happy I did it. I am now also much happier going back to the medium I am comfortable with, and will hopefully be writing a Miss Gay UK blog, in which I would like to interview the finalists.

Congratulations go to the finalist, Shixin Bickerton, who will be going on the Miss Gay UK final in Birmingham on November 9th. Stay tuned for interviews with the finalists and other behind the scenes gossip. Who needs the X Factor when we have a real life contest taking place under our very nose!